Mermaid Maritime in $436m offshore splash

Bangkok: Thailand’s Mermaid Maritime has signed with China Merchants Industry Holdings to purchase two newbuild tender rigs and one newbuild dive support vessel for a combined price of $436m.

The two drilling rigs will be delivered in the first and second quarters of 2016 while the dive support vessel will be delivered in the third quarter of the same year.

Chalermchai Mahagitsiri, the ceo of Mermaid said, “Mermaid is seeing sustained demand for offshore oil and gas services as the level of global exploration and production activity continues to trend upward. Our two drilling rigs, MTR-1 and MTR-2, are nearing the latter portion of their useful lives. The two state-of-the-art tender rigs we have ordered will enable us to operate at a higher level during a time in which customer preferences and hence day rates continue to favour newer equipment. We have seen this first hand through the AOD partnership with Seadrill, which deployed three brand new high specification jack-up rigs to Saudi Aramco in the Middle East at very strong day rates. The newly ordered dive support vessel meanwhile will be Mermaid’s fourth such asset, adding to a fleet high in demand by oil majors in the Middle East and Asia. The three existing dive support vessels are currently working in Indonesia, the North Sea and the Gulf of Thailand.”

The two tender assist rigs will be built based on an industry favoured National Oilwell Varco (NOV) design. The new dive support and construction vessel will feature a remotely operated underwater vehicle (ROV) and a twin bell saturation system. [10/01/14]